Currently submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Sep 23, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 24, 2026 - Nov 19, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Elder Abuse Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Protocol for Scoping Review of Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Reporting Patterns
ABSTRACT
Background:
Elder abuse is a pervasive public health concern affecting millions of older adults worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented challenges- including heightened social isolation, caregiver stress, financial strain, and disruptions in healthcare and social services- that may have substantially exacerbated abuse risk. Although prior reviews have synthesized the global burden of elder abuse, none have systematically examined how patterns, risk factors, and reporting mechanisms evolved across the pre-, during-, and post-pandemic periods. Understanding these temporal dynamics is critical for informing prevention, detection, and policy strategies.
Objective:
This scoping review aims to map the extent, range, and nature of elder abuse before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on prevalence, risk and protective factors, reporting patterns, and affected subpopulations across community and institutional settings globally.
Methods:
Following the PRISMA-ScR framework, peer-reviewed studies published in English were identified through PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to December 2025. Eligible studies included older adults (aged 65+) in community or institutional settings and reported on any form of elder abuse. Data extracted included study design, geographic setting, abuse type, prevalence, risk and protective factors, reporting mechanisms, and pandemic phase (pre-COVID, during COVID, post-COVID). Data will be synthesized descriptively with narrative integration of trends, gaps, and temporal patterns.
Results:
We anticipate that evidence will be unevenly distributed across pandemic phases, with a predominance of studies from the early COVID-19 period. Findings are expected to highlight increases in emotional, physical, and multi-type abuse during the pandemic, as well as variations by setting, socioeconomic status, and caregiver characteristics. Persistent gaps in surveillance, underreporting, and limited post-pandemic data are anticipated. The review will likely identify multilevel contributors, including social isolation, financial strain, caregiver burden, and systemic vulnerabilities.
Conclusions:
This scoping review will provide the first comprehensive synthesis of elder abuse patterns across pandemic phases, clarifying shifts in prevalence, risk, and reporting. Findings will inform health system preparedness, targeted interventions, and policy measures to mitigate elder abuse during future public health emergencies, ultimately supporting equitable protection and well-being for older adults. Clinical Trial: Open Science Framework (OSF); Registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/S8GBR
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